UNITED STATES: Feds launch new attack on Indymedia
On October 8, the FBI issued an order to internet provider Rackspace to hand over the hard drives of the servers in the US and Britan that host a number of Indymedia sites. More than 20 Indymedia sites were affected. Rackspace, which has offices in both Britain and the US, complied with the FBI order without notifying the Independent Media Centre. In a statement issued by Indymedia, it said it did not know why the order had been issued. In August the US Secret Service used a subpoena in an attempt to disrupt the New York City IMC before the Republican Party national convention by trying to get internet provider logs from an ISP in the US and the Netherlands. Last month the FBI asked Indymedia to remove a post on the Nantes IMC that had a photo of some undercover Swiss police and IMC volunteers in Seattle were visited by FBI agents on the same matter.
CHINA: 6000 textile workers strike
More than 6000 textile workers in Xianyang City will complete a full month on strike on October 14, after the factory was bought by China Resources (Holdings) Pty Ltd, which attempted to force all the workers to accept a severance payment, after which it intended to re-employ some workers on a no-senority basis, at a significantly lower wage. The workers are maintaining a rolling picket on the site, in 200-strong shifts. A September 18 police attempt to break the picket with water cannon failed when the picketers used pots to wake the entire workforce and their families. Faced with thousands of people, many children, the police retreated.
SCOTLAND: Asylum-seekers branded by curtains
Asylum seekers housed in the Barlooch district of Glasgow are fighting to be allowed to change their curtains, after realising that racist thugs are using the distinctive yellow flowered curtains to identify the flats the government houses asylum seekers in. Asylum seekers with the curtains have had abuse shouted at them through the letterbox and their doors urinated on. In the most serious case, the door to one of the flats was set alight. After one family attempted to change the curtains, the National Asylum Seeker Service told them to put the old curtains back, under threat of eviction. According to an October 6 story on the Refugees, Asylum-seekers and the Media Project website <http://www.ramproject.org.au>, an asylum seeker who chose not to be named said: "They might as well put a big sign in our windows saying: 'Asylum-seekers live here'." A group of asylum seekers have taken the matter to the Scottish Refugee Council.
OAS secretary general resigns
Miguel Angel Rodriguez, a right-wing former president of Costa Rica, resigned his post as the Secretary general of the Organisation of American States on October 8, after it was revealed that, while president, he took more than US$500,000 from French company Alcatel, to which his government awarded a $149 million contract to install 400,000 phone lines. Jose Antonio Lobo, the former head of Costa Rica's power and telephone company has testified that he had accepted from Alcatel a US$2.4 million "prize" for the contract, and that Rodriguez had initially demanded 60% of it. Roderiguez is expected to be formally charged with corruption soon.
UNITED STATES: Lockout hits 4000 hotel workers
Workers at four San Francisco hotels went on strike on September 28 over pay and employer demands for cuts in health-care payments. Associated Press reported on October 8 that employers at 10 other hotels involved in the contract talks responded by locking out union employees and declaring the lockout would extend to all 14 hotels and 4000 union members unless agreement was reached. The San Francisco Multi-Employer Group, which represents the hotel owners, has offered the hotel workers an hourly wage increase of 20 cents during each of the next five years for most workers, and 5 cents for employees such as porters and bartenders who earn tips. The 20 cent raise translates into an extra $8 weekly pay for full-time workers. "It's an insult", said Valerie Lapin, a union spokesperson told AP.
UNITED STATES: NYC drops charges against protesters
On October 6, the Manhattan District Attorney's office announced it will not prosecute cases against the 227 protesters who were arrested August 31 at the time of the Republican National Convention in a peaceful street demonstration near the Ground Zero World Trade Center site.
It has been widely speculated that the arrest and prolonged detention of these and other protesters during the RNC was an illegal effort by the Republican Party-led NY City administration to take protesters off the streets for the convention.
BRITAIN: Councils refuse refugees
New Labour's promise to resettle 500 of Africa's "most vulnerable", those fleeing war, torture and rape, is in tatters after only one council has agreed to house any of the refugees. The Home Secretary David Blunkett announced the scheme 11 months ago, describing it as a "legal gateway" that would reduce the numbers of people being smuggled through Europe by holding out a hope (however slim) of a legal way in. The aim was to increase the amount to 1000 in the second year. However, just 69 refugees have been resettled under the scheme, all by Sheffield Council, which Blunkett used to lead. a Home Office source told the Guardian on October 4 that "the problem is that even the most sympathetic councillors have some Nimby tendencies when it comes to refugees and asylum seekers". The Guardian described the mess as a product of the "hostile political climate' toward asylum seekers", which resulted in no councillors being prepared to be publicly identified with bringing refugees in to their local area.
Stem cells cures heart defects in mice
A study carried out by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York has suggested that embryonic stem cells may be able to cure genetic defects indirectly. Many scientists have hoped that stem cells, which can develop into any cell in the body, could be used to replace damaged cells. This study, however, which treated mice suffering congenital heart conditions, found that stem cells might also be able to repair damaged cells by releasing growth factors that affected neighbouring cells. Researcher Dr Robert Benezra told New Scientist magazine that, "Stem cells act like nurses, restoring 'sick' cells to health.". The cells' secretions also crossed placenta, eliminating the defect entirely in newborn mice. Stem Cell research is still heavily curtailed in the US, under pressure from right-wing Christian groups who oppose the use of cells from feotuses in reserach.
VENEZUELA: Chavez declares support for Saharawi struggle
Following left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's declaration on October 3 that his government "strongly supports" the Saharawi people's struggle for national self-determination, on October 5 Venezuelan foreign minister Jesus Perez announced that his country would cooperate with Cuba to provide humanitarian aide to the people of Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. Perez told Reuters the assistance would form part of a cooperative agreement signed in Caracas on October 4 between Venezuela and a delegation of the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic, declared in 1978 by Western Sahara's independence movement. Venezuela recognised the SADR in 1983. On October 4, the Chavez government signed an accord with SADR cooperation minister Salek Baba pledging Venezuela's "solidarity support" for the people of Western Sahara.
CANADA: Monsanto wins court case
Canadian farmers' traditional right to save seeds is under threat following agribusiness giant Monsanto's May Supreme Court victory over Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeider. Monsanto alleged that Schmeider illegally saved its genetically modified Roundup Ready canola seeds in 1997, after it obtained plants from his farm the following year that contained its patented genetics. Throughout six years of litigation, Schmeider maintained that his fields were contaminated by Roundup Ready seeds that had blown off trucks on their way to a processing plant from a neighbour's farm. Despite widespread evidence of contamination on many other farms, the Supreme Court ruled that Schmeider had violated Monsanto's legal rights under Canada's Patent Act. In the wake of the court ruling, Canada's agricultural department is considering proposals to collect payments (royalties) on GM seeds farmers have saved from the own crops.
From Green Left Weekly, October 13, 2004.
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